On Horses and Hospitality

Lorien Wroten Connects Her Lifetime Loves  

Winvian’s Hotel and Operations Manager Lorien Wroten confesses that she has “a horse problem.” In a recent conversation about her new role at Winvian, Lorien shared that she fell in love with horses long before she had the means or independence to ride one. At the age of 11, passing by a horse farm on the bus home from school, she jotted down the phone number painted on the fence. When she got home, she worked up the courage to call and ask if she could do chores on the farm in exchange for opportunities to ride. This was the start of a lifelong relationship between Lorien and horses—one that informs her work at Winvian today.

Lorien’s love of horses is second only to her love of hospitality. Lorien has extensive experience in the luxury hospitality space, both in fine dining and at The Pitcher Inn, where she first worked with Winvian’s Managing Director Heather Smith Winkelmann. There Lorien forged a strong connection to the Smith family, one rooted in their shared belief that hospitality can be both elegant and welcoming.

Heather recognized that Lorien’s warm, confident and capable leadership made her a natural fit for the Winvian team. Together they created the role of Hotel and Operations Manager to showcase those strengths. In this position, Lorien serves as a liaison and translator—working closely with operations, while coaching and supporting a wide range of staff in their day-to-day roles.

Rethinking a Herd Mentality

Every day, Lorien applies lessons learned in the paddock and arena to her work at Winvian. One of her favorite takeaways is the underrated value of operating like a herd. The idea of “herd mentality” is often misunderstood. We tend to confuse it with following the crowd, blinders on, ignorant to our own best interests. In the equine world, however, the herd mentality means functioning as a thriving collective, serving each individual horse by maintaining the safety of the group.

Horses are prey animals, Lorien points out. Their survival depends on group cooperation. They survey their surroundings constantly, paying attention to small details of their environment, ready to respond to changes that signal a threat and act with quiet confidence to protect the herd.

A healthy herd mentality entails knowing the individual characteristics of each horse in the group—leveraging strengths and compensating for weaknesses as needed. This approach yields a cohesive strength, one where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Lorien strives to create just such a healthy, smoothly functioning whole at Winvian.

Curiosity and Anticipation Yield Harmonious Results

Lorien brings an equine curiosity about each member of the Winvian team to her work as Hotel and Operations Manager. From landscaping and housekeeping to dining and spa services, Lorien gets to know the individual backgrounds, needs and concerns of the staff integral to distinguishing Winvian even from other well-regarded resorts.

It’s an investment of time and energy that pays off. By truly understanding what goes into delivering a seamless guest experience, Lorien is better able to make precise operational choices that set team members up for success. When soliciting feedback about challenges each department might face, Lorien scans the environment for potential threats to the effortless ethos of a Winvian escape, and responds with small changes that make a big impact, protecting the guest experience above all.

Effortless is Not Easy

Lorien’s past experiences working in well-known restaurants, and even running one of her own, led her to understand that the best guest experiences require a lot of advance preparation. When visitors come to Winvian they should feel that they are in good hands, trusting that their needs will be anticipated and met in a manner that exceeds their highest expectations. Guests often comment on how happy and relaxed our Winvian staff seems to be. That’s genuine. But it’s also the result of good management, clear expectations, and intense preparation that makes providing unparalleled hospitality look effortless.

Lorien admits that executing on the promise of luxury hospitality that feels both elegant and familial isn’t effortless. But it is satisfying. Just like a dressage rider who appears utterly unflappable perched astride a majestic warmblood, there’s a particular joy in making hard work—or herd work—look easy. Each time a guest marvels at the magic of their Winvian escape, it’s worth every effort.